Shell Opens Singapore’s First Oil Refinery At Pulau Bukom

Shell Opens Singapore’s First Oil Refinery At Pulau Bukom

Singapore’s oil refining trade started when the Shell Refining Firm (Singapore) Limited opened the island first oil refinery at Pulau Bukom on 26 July 1961.[1] The refinery earned Shell the ioneer Certificate No. 1 which was awarded by the Singapore government.[2]

Shell lengthy history with Singapore may be traced back to 1891. At the time, the offshore island of Pulau Bukom was used to store kerosene for M. Samuel & Co. of London, which was importing kerosene in bulk from Russia for distribution in Asia. Enlisting the assistance of local agency house Syme & Co., Samuel arrange and ran a petroleum tank depot the primary of its sort within the East on Pulau Bukom. In 1897, the company expanded into Borneo underneath a new company, the Shell Transport and Trading Co., and included the Bukom depot in this enterprise.[Three] In 1907, Shell merged with its Dutch competitor, the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, to kind Royal Dutch Shell, which went on to become a petroleum large within the Far East through the inter-struggle years.[4] Shell’s Far Jap tankers, which were used to load oil from oil centres in Singapore, British Borneo and Indonesia, were administered by Shell in Singapore, which additionally managed the reception, storage, blending and reshipment of oil from Pulau Bukom. An area fleet of tankers was additionally based mostly in and operated from Singapore to cover oil supplies for Malaya, British Borneo, Indonesia, Thailand and Indo-China.[5]

In November 1959, Shell introduced plans to start a refinery in the Federation of Malaya.[6] Singapore was finally chosen as the positioning for the brand new refinery as the island was then already the largest oil storage, mixing, packing and bunkering base in Southeast Asia, and among the largest on the planet.[7] As well as, Singapore supplied generous tax incentives to attract new enterprises and encourage current ones to expand in Singapore.[8] The $30-million refinery located in Bukom was officially opened by then Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee on 26 July 1961.[9] Shell strengthened its presence in Pulau Bukom when it constructed a $20-million comprehensive residential advanced at Timor Pulau Bukom.[10] Shell drew most of its labour from the menfolk who have been residing on nearby Pulau Seking before the redevelopment of the island.[11]

The Bukom refinery is presently Shell largest refinery globally in terms of crude distillation capability, producing 500,000 barrels per day.[12] A serious fire, which broke out on the refinery on 28 September 2011, resulted in Shell shutting down its entire refinery. The refinery restarted partial operations in October and returned to full manufacturing by December.[13]

The information in this article is legitimate as at 2013 and proper so far as we’re able to ascertain from our sources. It isn’t supposed to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further studying supplies on the topic.